Like the Color of His Eyes
by Lialane Graest
Summary: Stein pushes Charlotte away from him; hoping that she will be able to move on. He shows affection to Marie, and triggers a series of catastrophic events that no one could have seen the ending to. Had he known, he would never have proceeded with his plan. SteinxMarie, CharlottexPast!Stein, RimxCharlotte.


Charlotte sat, watching. She knew why he was doing it, she did. He was trying to distance himself from her; to force her back to Rim's waiting arms. He claimed that he was doing it for her own good. It didn't matter how much she had screamed and pleaded.

He had forced her to leave the lab.

Now she sat in class, her eyes staring at the two teachers. She could barely stomach the happy look that was on Marie's face. It was all she could do to keep from clenching her hands into fists and striding up to the woman and punching her. She dug her nails into the desk she was sitting at to avoid it, the thought rushing through her mind over and over.

He was hers, not Marie's. He could never be Marie's, just like she could never be Rim's. She felt the rage swell in her chest and it tripled when Rim's hand settled lightly on hers, his eyes shining with concern.

"Class dismissed."

Charlotte surged to her feet, nearly running to leave the classroom. Rim met Stein's eyes and the man looked away, holding his hand out to Marie. A blush colored Marie's cheeks as she took it and stood with his assistance.

Rim followed Charlotte through the door, an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. The meister didn't stop her hurried stride until they were at the base of the long staircase that leads to Shibusen; it was only then that she collapsed to the ground and sobbed.

Rim picked her up and slung her arm over his shoulder. She cried against his chest the entire way home.

* * *

"What do you want for dinner, Franken?"

The scientist just shrugged and moved into his research lab; his experiment was waiting. He heard Marie's exasperated sigh from behind him and a smirk tugged at his lips. The increased attention he was showing the woman had caused her to become even more predictable; each day she tried to make him whatever he wanted to eat, and she tried to spend an increasing amount of time with him.

The increased affections were borderline annoying to the scientist, but he suffered through them. He constantly reminded himself that he was doing this for Charlotte and, to a lesser extent, himself. Charlotte was his student. When they were together there was no telling what could happen; they may wake up one day to find that one or the other, in a fit of madness, had killed the other. They only amplified their shared madness.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Marie enter the room. She sat a plate on the desk beside his keyboard and smiled down at him, the smell from the food she had cooked swiftly filling the small area. It smelled good, Stein realized suddenly. He gave her a small smile back before standing and picking up the plate.

"I'll eat with you."

He didn't miss the blush that tinged her cheeks; neither did Charlotte, watching from the window.

* * *

Rim woke up to find Charlotte gone, his head pounding and a strange taste in his mouth. He ran his hand through his hair as he stood, shaking his head groggily.

He checked the entire apartment, growing more and more frustrated as he couldn't find her. It chilled his blood when he realized that the large butcher knife from the kitchen was missing.

He went at a run towards the Patchwork Lab, noting the darkening sky.

* * *

Charlotte clutched the knife in her hand, watching through yet another window. Stein was aware of her now, and he was staying near Marie, worried at what Charlotte may attempt if he left the death scythe alone.

He knew that if it came down to a fight between the two there was a good chance that Marie would win; there was also as good a chance that Charlotte would take Marie by surprise and bring the death scythe down before she realized that her student was a threat.

That was why he was sitting on Marie's purple couch, watching a documentary, with the death scythe asleep against him. His experiment sat unfinished in his research lab, but he couldn't shake the feeling that if he left her to go to it there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to return to her again. His hand tightened without his knowledge on her shoulder and she sighed into his chest.

Charlotte noticed. She trembled as she forced herself to stay still. She had to wait until he left her alone. Then she would take revenge on the woman that dared to steal her Stein.

They both jumped when a pounding resounded through the lab.

"Marie?" Stein shook her gently and she opened sleepy eyes. "Marie, come with me to answer the door."

She just nodded, still mostly asleep, and stood unsteadily to her feet. The scientist stood a moment later and walked with her to the door as the pounding resounded through the lab again. He moved in front of her, his posture defensive. He already knew who was behind the door; what he didn't know was why.

He opened the door slowly, Marie kept behind him. "What do you want, Rim?"

"Charlotte is missing, is she here? I can't think of anywhere else that she'd be."

Stein's hand wrapped around the weapon's shoulder and tugged him into the Lab before shutting the door. "She's been here for a while, I'm not sure if it would be safe for you to take her home either-"

"She has the butcher knife from the kitchen."

Stein's eyes widened slightly at the weapon's proclamation. He heard Marie take a step backwards, her heels clicking sharply against the floor.

"Franken?"

"Marie, I'm going to go talk to her. Stay here with Mr. Shakre."

Her hand caught his arm. "I'm not letting you go out there and possibly get yourself hurt."

"This isn't up for debate. Rim, watch her." Stein turned the handle and slipped out the door, and Rim stepped in front of Marie.

"I'm sorry Marie-sensei, but I have to do what Hakase Stein asks me."

* * *

Charlotte was waiting for him outside the door, the knife gripped tightly in her hand. He put his back to the door immediately, his hands open and loose at his sides, and she just laughed.

"Pretending to be unarmed and that you're harmless isn't going to fool me."

"If you know that, then you know that what you're doing is the wrong thing, Charlotte." She laughed again, bending double as she lost her breath.

Stein acted. He lunged at the teen, his arms tight to his body as she sensed his movements and stood. The knife swung wide, her target smaller than she had been anticipating, and she missed. He slammed into her stomach, taking the two of them to the ground.

The knife fell to the ground somewhere to his left, but he just focused on pinning her hands to the ground, his long body arched above hers. She screamed and struggled, trying to bite him and rip her hands free from his grasp. He evaded the attacks and still managed to keep her pinned. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she sobbed.

"Charlotte."

"Let me go!" she screamed. "Just let me go…"

The tears flowed from her cheeks and Stein was fooled. His grip on her wrists loosened, and he pulled away from her slightly. Her knee caught him and his vision went white as he lost his grip on her, tumbling to the side, his knees drawn up for a moment as pain threatened to overwhelm him.

In that moment Charlotte bolted past him and flung the door to the lab open.

* * *

Rim positioned himself between Charlotte and Marie, his arms held slightly away from his body as the meister stood across from them, a butcher knife held in her hand.

"Charlotte, I am not going to let you hurt Marie-sensei."

"Oh, so you want her then? Well, then, you can have her! She can't be his anyway!" Charlotte screamed, her white knuckled hand trembling around the knife's hilt.

"Charlotte, I don't understand-" Marie started.

Stein's voice came from behind Charlotte. "She thinks that you are taking me from her, Marie."

Realization struck the death scythe then, and she covered her mouth with her hands before a look of anger crossed her face. "Charlotte, you are his student! What put such a thought in your head that you thought he was yours to begin with?"

"Because he is!" she screamed out, her body shaking. "He always has been, he always will be! He can't be yours!"

Charlotte took a menacing step towards Marie and Rim met her, his hand meeting her wrist. Stein watched the two of them.

"Charlotte, you need to relax," Rim's voice was calm and meant to be soothing. It seemed to have the opposite effect on the meister though.

"I will not let her have him!" she screamed and lunged and then Rim's arms were around her waist, his body twisting as he pulled her momentum off course and took them to the floor. Stein acted a second later, moving towards the pair just as they hit the ground.

He smelled the blood before he saw it.

Rim was coughing. Marie was screaming. Charlotte was on top of Rim, her hands scrabbling at his chest as she tried to force herself into a sitting position. Stein's hands grabbed her by the armpits and pulled her bodily to her feet.

His wavelength surged through her a moment later, and her eyes rolled up in the back of her head. The stress of madness coupled with the sudden shock of soul energy knocked the young meister out cold, and Stein lowered her to the ground before moving over to Rim. He pulled the weapon's shirt up despite Rim's feeble protests, his fingers lightly touching the edges of the stab wounds. Rim hissed.

"Marie, help me." The death scythe jerked into action, helping Stein pull Rim to his feet.

"I… can change…" Rim said weakly.

A moment later a flash of light heralded the weapon's transformation. Stein deftly caught the weapon, well aware that the knife wound to Rim's abdomen was severe. He turned from Marie for one moment, and felt Charlotte's wavelength shift.

He didn't even have time to turn back to her before he felt something hot and sticky hit his back, splashing his lab coat and neck. It was followed by weight; that of the death scythe spinning and collapsing against him. She took him to the ground, and Charlotte's laughter rang through the hallway, echoing eerily through the lab.

"Marie!" He moved swiftly, rolling the death scythe to the side, Rim still in weapon form in his hand. Charlotte was bent double, her laugh a screeching hyena laugh now, her knife now buried in Marie's chest.

Stein felt his sanity being threatened, and his hand moved immediately to the screw in his head. He twisted it, trying to figure the best way to resolve the situation so that he could get both Marie and Rim into the lab and surgery. He knew that Marie's wound was worse; Rim would eventually bleed to death, Marie's breath was a weak wheeze that he could hear the gurgle of blood in.

It took him two heartbeats to move to Charlotte, another to strike her with his wavelength. She tumbled backwards, her laughter finished, and he was there again, the girl looking up at him with wide eyes, obviously confused. He didn't give her time to find herself again; he simply flung her outside of the door and slammed the door shut behind her, locking it.

He could hear her screams of rage through it, but he gathered both Rim and Marie up, thankful that the boy had been able to remain conscious and in weapon form so long. A long moment later he was in a lab, Marie laid out on a table, Rim on one beside her with orders not to move; his wound hastily cleaned and stitched shut. Both had an IV in, and Marie was already unconscious with a breathing tube down her throat.

Rim would have to wait; Stein could see Marie's soul wavering.

He didn't bother watching for Charlotte's wavelength- if she managed to make it into the lab she would still have to make it past a door that was designed to keep _him_ inside.

That was why, hours later, when he heard Rim's voice rise in a scream and Charlotte's laughter, far too close for comfort, erupt in the small room his head jerked up. Marie's chest was open, he was desperately trying to fix a bleeder before she bled out, and Charlotte was looking at him from across the operating table.

"_Aw, it is such a shame that her heart stopped," _she said, her voice a mockery of condolence.

"Charlotte, don't!" he cried out just as Rim started to move.

Charlotte's hand plunged into Marie's chest cavity, her wavelength crackling through the woman's heart. Marie convulsed on the table an instant before Rim slammed into her. The meister turned her wavelength on her weapon then, a smile on her face as the boy fell to the ground.

Rim wasn't breathing.

Stein stood still, in shock, staring at a point in space between him and Charlotte. Charlotte met his gaze and laughed as she reached out to the spot that he was looking at.

"No!" His hand flew through the air, his own wavelength surging through the teen. Charlotte slammed into the wall, and Stein heard the snap of her neck.

The meister hit his knees, the only thing his mind was able to focus on were the three souls that hovered above three shattered and broken bodies.

* * *

**A/N: I don't own Soul Eater. Charlotte and Rim both belong to TheAUWalker. **

**For those that do not get the title; Green is the color of Jealousy and Envy- the same color as Stein's eyes.**

**I hope that you enjoyed it. **


End file.
